Retrieval Assistance Mediated by Conceptual Views and Multiplex Searching

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9215085 Marcus This is the third year of a three-year award to investigate techniques of high potential for making the search process easier and more effective for inexperienced as well as expert searchers. An experimental search assistance method is enhanced for greater effectiveness by: 1) replacing the textually oriented user interface with a graphically oriented user interface (GUI), and 2) extending the underlying search models to serve as a basis for assistance for searching in general databases with a verbal indexing character as well as in bibliographic databases. The enhanced system is tested on a variety of experimental users to determine how well the GUI aids the user by encapsulating the conceptual representation of the user's problem and guide in the generation, execution, evaluation, and modification of the multiplex search strategies needed to facilitate efficient and effective searching. The tests compare results from bibliographic and full text, and other non-bibliographic databases, as well as for different modalities of user interfaces, ranging from highly user-directed interactions to highly automated or system-directed modes, where user initiatives may be limited to an initial problem statement and a minimal amount of relevance feedback on retrieved documents.